Date: 15 Jun 94 00:13 PDT
From: International Gay Lesbian Human Rights Commission
PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release Contact: Julie Dorf + 415-255-8680
Courageous Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Activists Win Award
The International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission will honor
a lesbian Serb, a gay Colombian and a South African gay rights
group in its first ever Felipa da Souza Awards to be presented
during the Stonewall 25 celebration in New York in June.
The annual award honors two individuals and one organization who
haveQat great risk, personal cost or otherwiseQfought for the
human rights and freedoms of sexual minorities anywhere in the
world. IGLHRC held open nominations and received almost 100
excellent nominations for activists and organizations from more
than 30 countries. IGLHRC's Board of Directors and International
Advisory BoardQa 30-person body of activists from all over the
worldQchose the winners this week.
The award is named in honor of Felipa da Souza, a Brazilian woman
convicted and tortured by the Portuguese Inquisition in 1591 for
having sexual relationships with other women.
The award winners include:
* ABIGALE, a black lesbian, gay and bisexual rights organization
in Cape Town, South Africa. They organized the first gay pride
march and film festival in Cape Town in 1993 and provide HIV
education for Africans in the townships. They worked in a
coalition that gained legal protection for lesbians and gay men in
the new South African constitution.
* Lepa Mladjenovic, a lesbian feminist activist from Belgrade who
co-founded the first Serbian lesbian and gay rights organization,
Arkadia. Mladjenovic has been working as an openly lesbian
activist in the women's movement and the peace movement throughout
the war, specifically working with women and children victims of
the war.
* Juan Pablo Ordonez, a civil rights attorney from Bogota,
Colombia, who has been the target of governmental persecution for
being gay and investigating the murders of "disposable persons"
including sexual minorities. At great risk he continues to work
in Colombia and is founding a new human rights organization there,
Proyecto Dignidade, dedicated to exposing violations against the
rights of "disposables."
"These are the unsung heroes of the human rights movement," said
Julie Dorf, Executive Director of IGLHRC. "They have put
themselves on the line at great personal risk and achieved
results."
Ordonez, Mladjenovic and representatives of ABIGALE will be
honored in New York City on the 25th anniversary of Stonewall,
during a week of events calling for human rights for sexual
minorities around the world. "It's fitting that on the
anniversary of the Stonewall riot, we will celebrate the people
who gave birth to a freedom movement in the United States by
honoring the futureUs leaders from other parts of the world," Dorf
said.
Hundreds of international activists will be present when the first
three Felipa de Souza awards are presented on Thursday, June
23rd, 6-8pm at Industria, 775 Washington Street @12th Street.
The International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission was
established in 1990 to focus attention to and fight against human
rights abuses based on sexual orientation or HIV status anywhere
in the world.
Interviews with the award winners and photos are available.